Tainted Souls
by DesertRose1
Summary: When the balance of light and dark is distorted, Ash Misty and Brock have to set things right but it won't be easy when the source of the alteration is a living breathing human girl. Who is she and why is it that the world may soon end because of her? (i'
1. Default Chapter

Tainted souls  
  
Backward  
  
Currently, the pokemon world had been thriving. Trainers great and weak traveled the world in  
  
search of battles and gyms or wild pokemon to add to their collection. Everyone lived in peace more or  
  
less, and the balance of the world was in perfect harmony. Or it was. In the later years documented as  
  
which the great trainer Ash Ketchum had lived in, the Balance was three times altered. The first alteration  
  
was known to those world wide as the Lugia Incident. Ash Ketchum and his fellow trainers Misty of the  
  
Cerulean city gym and Brock of the Pewter city gym were traveling the Orange Islands at this time. After  
  
meeting with some natives and hearing the legend of The Power of One, Ash was revealed as the chosen  
  
one. To cut things short, Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres had been awakened and as so was lugia when the  
  
young man had retrieved three special orbs. Thus being the first tremor in the upcoming Dark Age. The  
  
second was an alteration in the Fifth Dimension of Unreality. A professor, and colleague of mine,  
  
discovered some unknown tiles only to disappear and leave his daughter Molly terribly upset. After the  
  
Unkown where unlocked, Molly gave life to the legendary Entei whom, as records show, kidnapped mister  
  
Ketchum's mother under the confused girl's wishes. With Molly's imagination, the unknown were merging  
  
Unreality with reality causing an even larger tremor in Balance than the Lugia Incident. That whole affair  
  
was of course, soon taken care of by Ash and his friends. All of us thought the worst was over. We thought  
  
the first two tremors were too weak in scientific standards to break the connection. How wrong we were.  
  
How very wrong we were. 


	2. Chapters one and two

Chapter 1 The unexpected rescue and the tattered hopes that follow  
  
"So where are we now Ash?" The tall red headed trainer inquired, leaning over his shoulder to peek at the map. She frowned at her friend, pointing at the piece of paper he held in his hands. "Ash, you should have let Brock hold the map." "Wah? Why should I?" he retorted, moving the map away from her. "Because you were reading it upside down!" Misty sighed, turning back to her other companion who was currently pouring out a little pokemon food for his vulpix. "Brock, why didn't you just take the map? We wouldn't be lost if you had." He grinned. "Because Ash asked. Besides, I know exactly where we are." Both Ash and Misty gawked at him in surprise. "You do?" "Sure, we're in the middle of nowhere." "Very helpful Brock. Guess we'll just have to camp here and try to find someone to ask for directions." "Pika!" Suddenly ash's pikachu darted from the bushes into his trainer's arms. "Pika-Pi!" "What is it Pikachu?" Ash watched as the frightened yellow pokemon leaped over to the bushes and pointed before running off. "Come on!" Without any complaints, Misty and Brock hurtled themselves into the greenery and chased after Ash and pikachu. It was a rather thorny area and both of them were getting scraped badly because of it. Still, they paid that no heed and hastened their pace. Whenever pikachu wanted them to follow, it was usually for a very good reason. "Pika pika! Pikachuuu!!" "Guys stop!" Ash's voice sounded muffled through a wall of shrubs and trees. "Pikachu's found someone! I-i think he's dead!." "And here I thought we'd actually have a nice quiet day." Muttered Misty. "Now we go and find a body in the middle of a really thorny forest." Brock ignored her and was already climbing over the naturally made wall, as he stepped down on the dirt he gasped as he saw Ash standing above an unmoving bloody body. Slowly he walked to Ash's side. "What do you think did this Brock?" He shook his head. "I don't know, but he might not be dead yet." As carefully as surgeons, they rolled the boy on his back and indeed he was alive. Just barely but it seemed he could still breathe and whisper. "w-w-who are you?" The small boy winced as did Brock and Ash for the poor kid's left leg was clean sliced off. A pokeball was lying next to him. "Hey you guys, why didn't you wait." She stopped dead as she saw the mangled kid on the ground. "Oh my.We have to get him to a hospital quick!" "We know that Misty, but if we're lost how can we?" "Well if you hadn't read the map wrong." "I did not!" "Did too!" "Did not!" Brock was torn between amusement and disgust. It was truly amazing how they could still argue at a time like this. He turned his attention back to the boy. "My name's Brock. Can you tell us where we are?" "In the. Ringing forest near.. Silver Bell city. Right. next .to. Mount Silver." Misty knelt beside the boy now. "Shh, can you stay awake for us um." "Cole." "Cole. Can you do that? You can't go to sleep right now, it's dangerous." He nodded weakly. Ash took the map out and gave it to Misty as he and Brock lifted the dying boy. Blood seeped onto their hands and each of them grimaced, yet still they held him tightly. Brock now remembered the thorns they passed through on the way in. "Ash, the thorns. Get Chikorita out, now. We can't let him lose any more blood than he already has!" He nodded, throwing a pokeball into the air; Chikorita dropped out waving her leaf in excitement. "Chikorita, use razor leaf to cut down those thorn bushes!" After a safe path was cleared, our heroes raced through the woods behind the little green pokemon. All the while, tiny pools of blood leaked out of the injured boy's wounds. His breathing became slower and more troubled. "Ash! We need to go faster! We'll never make it to Silver Bell city on foot in time!" Ash nodded, plucking another ball from his belt as he ran. "Noctowl! Fly ahead as quick as you can and bring us some help!" But Noctowl was already far ahead in the sky, searching the ground below for anyone close enough to aid his master. A slight pick up in the breeze to the east averted his attention for a brief moment and he had seen all he needed to see. With a loud hoot, the owl flew at top speed towards the oddly shaped balloon. "C'mon! C'mon, he's getting worse." Misty jogged ahead of them, examining the map. "And we're nowhere near Silver Bell!" Brock's arms were starting to weaken from carrying the slightly chubby kid. Gently, he motioned to ash to set him down on the grass. "Misty, we have to stop. If we keep moving, Noctowl might lose us." "He's right." Quipped Ash, "and besides, you said yourself we're now were near the city so." "There's no point in going on." She sat down heavily beside Ash. All three of them looked down at the mangled boy and felt a sickness in their hearts. Pikachu shuddered and dug it's head into Ash's vest. Misty, who had Togepi asleep in her satchel, was glad that the little egg couldn't see this. Although the question of why he hadn't waken up with all this noise was silently buzzing in the corner of her mind. "Oh Brock, Ash, he has to get better. I mean, sure we don't know him but." Brock had his head in his hands, the look of a beaten man. The sight of that small boy reminded him of his brothers, and at a single glance, the figure turned into one of his younger siblings; moaning, and writhing in pain. It was stupid, how they thought they could get him to a hospital on time. "Noctooowl!" Suddenly Noctowl swooped out of the air and landed triumphantly on Ash's shoulder. "Noctowl! You got help, that's great! Who'd you get to." "Prepare for trouble!" "Make it double!" "To protect the world from devastation." "To unite all peoples within our nation." "To denounce the evils of truth and love." "To extend our reach to the stars above." "Jessie!" "James!" "Team rocket blast off at the speed of light, surrender now or prepare to fight!" "Wobbuf." "Meowth that's right!" They all jumped up from where they were sitting and shouted in unison. "Team rocket!" Pikachu darted forward, shocks dancing from it's cheeks. It glared at them, daring them to make any wrong moves. Meowth edged forward. "Hey hey, pikachu. We mean ya's no harm." "Pika pi!" "Why should we trust ya? Well, see Noctowl flew over to our balloon and told us you twerps found a dyin kid. Well we didn't believe him but came anyway cause we wanted to catch you, pikachu. But then we saw this bloody thing lying on the ground and it looked like." Brock and Ash were already lifting the boy. "No time for talk! Help us get him in the balloon!" Jessie stifled a moan. Blood on her hands was defiantly something she didn't want but a life is a life and they had no time according to what the twerp's Noctowl told Meowth. She turned to James. "So?" He nodded. "Let's help Jessie, he needs it." They both clasped hands and faced Ash, Misty and Brock. "But after this, the truce is off." Soon they were lifting off the ground and heading as fast as they could go towards the city. Pikachu climbed down to perch on Jame's shoulder. He blinked, nervously looking at him though the corner of his eye. "Er." Ash picked the little mouse type up and smiled slightly. "He won't shock you right now. But if you try to catch him he will." James nodded, moving nervously to the other side of the basket. Misty and Jessie were constantly watching Cole a.k.a. the boy and reporting how he was doing. There was never a good answer. James took this time to take a better look at their intensely injured passenger. His face, no, whole body was whiter than snow making the dripping blood stand out more so. His black hair was matted on his head, oily and dirty and his chest barely rose with each passing breath. He sat down, staring at the boy in wonder. Who could have done this? Team Rocket was bad, true, but they didn't do this to trainers. This was pure evil, someone attacking a child this young and his baby pokemon. Shaking his head in disgust, he got up to join the twerp named Brock at the rim of the basket. "We didn't do it." Brock whirled to face him. "what?" "We didn't hurt that kid or his pokemon." "We didn't say you did." James raised an eyebrow. "Sure, but we both know that you think it was us." "No, not you in general. It was probably some other." He shook his head. "It wasn't anyone on Team Rocket. We steal things sure, kidnap, lie, cheat.but we don't kill." Silence. The air was cool and pleasant in their faces but it was impossible to enjoy while someone was dying right next to you. Brock sighed gazing back out over the horizon. His breath caught in his throat. There, in the distance, actually very close was a city. Glittering and twinkling in the moonlight, it's buildings looked undoubtedly like they were made of silver and unable to hold it, he screamed at the others loudly. "There! There! The city!" Everyone rushed over, crying in sudden joy. Jessie and James quickly began lowering the balloon. When they saw a suitable spot near the hospital, they let the burner slowly dwindle into smoke and tied on a few sand bags. On the ground, Ash, Misty, and Jessie heaved Cole out and into the emergency room. A Chansey wobbled over. "Chansey? Chansey chansey?" "We need a docter right away Chansey!" The large pink pokemon hurried off and grabbed a stretcher. Without another word, more chansey appeared and wheeled it into some double doors. So now he was here, but would he make it?  
  
DesertRose: eep, ok I know it kinda sucked but I was drawing a blank on how to start so I thought why not start with some action? ^__^; heh.or not..but if you can let me know what you think? It will get better, I promise ^_~ Oh yeah and I don't own pokemon never have never did and never will.No! that's a lie! I invented them I tell you! Wuah hahahahaha! *plagerization police drag her away* ok so maybe I didn't.  
  
Chapter 2 The Battle  
  
Ash was shaken violently awake by someone with bright red hair.Misty? He blinked, examining his surroundings groggily. A hospital waiting room? But why were they waiting in a hospital? The events from the other day and night flowed into his mind on rewind. Team Rocket.need help..noctowl..chikorita.thorns..blood, lots of blood..a boy. Cole! "Finally! I thought you'd never wake up! C'mon, Cole's awake and he wanted to see us." Brock suddenly loomed over her shoulder, peering down at him. "Looks like pikachu was tired too." He pointed to the yellow mouse type who was balled up next to Ash. "We should go now, before he gets to tired to talk." Nodding, ash slowly got up and stretched. They filed into the room one by one and gathered around the kid's bed. He sat up, purple eyes shining. "Thank you shtho much for sthafing me." Cole lisped when he talked, but at the moment he didn't really care two of his teeth were missing. "I'm Stho glad. Would have died. Mom would have killed me! Er..i mean." Chuckling, he waved it aside. "Anyway, thanks again." Misty smiled and Ash placed pikachu on the bed. It scurried up to Cole and stuck a tiny paw out for him to shake. "pika?" "He wants to be friends." Cole shook back, now laughing. "Ok! I bet Igglybuff would love that!" "You have a.?" Brock cut him off. "Im sorry to be the pessimist but Cole, we need to know. Who did this to you?" The young boy shook his head, a look of deep sorrow and pain flashed upon his face. "I don't know. I couldn't see who did it." "You couldn't see? How could you not? Tell us what happened from the beginning." "Well, I was out hiking with Igglybuff when we heard someone screaming for help. We went off the trail and kept walking for a really long time." "Then when we reached a clearing, no one was there. We started to leave when this.this voice laughed and challenged us to a pokemon battle." Misty, even though she was sorry for him, couldn't help but anger at this. "And you accepted?" "No! They forced me to! The voice didn't say anything else when suddenly it released it's pokeball and..and.the sandslash attacked me! It was so scary!" He began to cry loudly. Brock clapped a hand on his shoulder as Nurse Joy entered carrying a pokeball and a tray of medicine. "All right everyone. He needs rest. You can come back tomorrow ok?" She hurried them out into the corridor then shut the door. Brock steered his two open mouthed friends towards the exit. Ash's stomache rumbled and pikachu nodded. "Pika pi, pikachu." "Yeah, I'm kinda hungry too. What about some food guys?" They all rubbed their stomaches and grinned beside themselves. "There's a nice café near here." "How'd you know that Misty?" inquired Ash. "I read about it in this visitor's guide while we were waiting. They had a whole stack of them in the front. It's supposed to be the best in the city; and," she added slyly, "it has an outdoor battling area right next to it." Brock raised an eyebrow. "Can we afford it? I mean, I could always." She gave them both puppy dog eyes. "Oh please? It's been forever since we've eaten in a café!" He sighed. "All right. Let's go." ~*~ ~*~  
  
Misty was skipping happily ahead of the others, togepi in her arms. She could almost taste the freshly cooked food in her mouth. Juices dripping from both fruits and meats, mmm.and some ice cream to finish it off! "We're almost there, one more block to go!" "Misty, you said that about ten blocks back." Ash grumbled as he tried to keep up. "Well..now it's true." She pointed ahead at a large sign reading Kendra's Café. Poke'chow now available in extra extra large servings. "For snorlax's and pokemon like that." Brock explained absently. "Good idea." Excited once again, Misty grabbed their arms and practically dragged them to the café. Many trainers of all kinds were already eating. Pokemon were also chomping down on their food, either that or chatting to one another. "Pika!" He was jumping up and down, looking at something. "Pika pi!" "What is it pikachu?" They turned around. A beautiful young woman with light blue hair and dark blue eyes was leaning on a counter. Beside her was a pokemon, also blue in color, yet the unusual thing was that it was a pikachu too. She waved at them, smiling at them. "Hello there. Can I help you?" As always, Brock zoomed forward; now entirely switched on PGA (pretty girl alert ^_^) "Why hello there ma'am. We just wanted to taste some of your wonderful, delicious, tasty food. And I happen to be a chef myself, so if you need any help. Just call Brock." "That's nice. Now, would a table for three by the battle field be ok with you folks?" "it'd be perfect! Say, would you care to join us?" He leaned forward smiling his goof ball smile. "Um.no.thanks, I have to work. Got to keep the customers happy." "But I'd be so happy if you'd." Misty grabbed an ear and pulled him away. "You must be Kendra right?" Kendra's smile broadened. "That's right." "I'm misty of Cerulean city gym and this is Ash." "My might I say how beautiful the name Kendra is. Perfect for a lady like yourself." She frowned a little in confusion. "And that's your pikachu?" Ash glanced at it in awe. His pikachu had already leaped onto the counter and the two were both joyously squeaking away. "Yup. Me and Tsunami have been running this café for a couple of years now." A few people were lining up behind Brock, Ash and Misty. "Oh, right. You're seats." She whistled and a blue pidgey appeared fluttering above their heads. "Why are all your pokemon blue?" "They're called color pokemon. My father travels the world looking for blue colored pokemon. Then he sends them to me. It's a family thing that all our pokemon are blue." She waved a hand at the pidgey and it instantly flew off. "Follow that pidgey to your seats." "Remember if you need help, just call on Brooooock!" Misty and Ash tugged on his arms, keeping an eye on the pidgey. He'd let pikachu stay at the counter so he could talk with his new friend. Suddenly he started to notice all the pokemon around him. There was an Ampharos, a croconaw, several larvitar, some scizzor. There were so many different types and shapes and sizes that Ash's head was spinning. He gladly sat down as they reached the table (the pidgey promptly flying away). "Wow you guys look at all the different pokemon!" "Yeah, who thought there'd be so many in this place!" Brock sighed, still staring at a far away dot that was leaning on a counter."sure Ash." Several moments later a waiter wandered up to the table. He wore a bandana and had a familiar face, black hair and eyes. "Tracy!" they shouted in unison. "Guys? Hey! Cool, never thought I'd meet you here!" Tracy shifed nervously. "I'm kinda lost in this place," he whispered, "It's so huge for a café, luckily Kendra's such an understanding person." "What do you mean?" "Well, I've accidently kept several trainers waiting for 6 hours straight for their meals. Got lost at around the fountain area." He glanced out at the battle field. "You should see Kendra battle. She's great! Almost as good as you Ash." Tracy chuckled, then checked himself. "oh.heh, what will it be ?" Misty automatically replied. "I'd like the Poliwag soup and some rice cakes and a glass of water. Nice and cold. Oh yeah and some Baby pokechow for togepi." The pencil in his hand raced across the pad. "Ash?" "Um.I'll get.a Charizard Scorcher and some soda. Er..can I get some ketchup with that? Lots of ketchup.maybe a whole bottle." The pencil stopped. "A whole bottle?" "For me and pikachu." Misty sighed. "It's ok Tracy, they're just insane. Nothing to worry about." "Er.ok.Brock?" "I'll have the same as Ash." With a nod and a wave, Tracy hobbled off to the next table. "Well that was a surprise. I just hope WE don't have to wait six hours." Brock laughed. "Nah, he'll be back soon Ash. Im sure he will." Six hours later.. Everyone was slumped in the chairs. Misty was lying head down on the table, Ash was twitching, Brock was drooling.finally a bemused and confused Tracy shuffled up to them. He carried a tray full of plates ans had an apologetic grin on his face. "Sorry guys.scyther kept slashing the ketchup bottles in the kitchen. You know how he hates red.then I got lost several hundred tables back." Ash stopped twitching long enough to say "It's ok, now can we eat?" As Tracy handed them their meals, he added absently. "Oh, be careful Ash. Those Charizard Scorchers are a real blast. Seriously, they are.." A pair of trainers started yelling angrily at Tracy from twenty tables away. He waved again then scurried off with a frightened expression dominating his face. "Wonder what he was going to say?" Ash asked as he and Brock bit into their sandwiches. "I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention." "Maybe something about." Ash placed a hand around his neck. Misty put her glass down instantly alert. "Ash? Are you ok? What's wrong?" His face started to redden. "Ash?!" Now it was as red as a beet.a tomato.as red as lava! He opened his mouth and actual steam blew out. "HOT!!!!!!! WATER!!!!!" She couldn't help but laugh as Ash ran around frantically asking for water. Misty glanced at Brock. "Isn't yours hot?" "He shrugged. "nah, pretty mild if you ask me." Half a mile away, ash found and fountain and, without questioning, plunged his head in! Everyone, human and pokemon alike, laughed hysterically. Someone nearby shouted with a chuckle, "He got the Charizard Scorcher ill bet!" Ash smiled bashfully, walking quickly back to the table with a soaking wet head. Misty giggled and spooned some soup into her mouth. "Hey look, a battle's starting!" Brock pointed to the field next door. Lights were blinking on at both ends. Two trainers stationed themselves, already in fighting stances. One of them had light blue hair and a blue pikachu next to them. "Kendra!" The blue hared girl waved at them then returned her attention to her opponent. A burly, tough looking man. Tracy appeared in the middle of the field. "Ladies, gentlemen and pokemon! Welcome to our noon day pokebattle! Our resident champion Kendra Sounding vs Hustous Hound! This is a three pokemon match. Trainers ready? Begin!" Kendra plucked a pokeball from her pocket, throwing it into the air. "I choose you, sunflora!" A brilliant red flash followed and there stood a curious looking pokemon. It had a bulbous body, long feet and leaves for arms. It's head looked kind of like a baseball with petals; and of course, it was blue. The man smirked. "all right, then I choose you.Granbull! Tackle attack now!" The granbull charged at sunflora, large body shadowing it's opponent. Kendra's eyes narrowed. "Now dodge it sunflora!" The plant type moved out of the way just as granbull slammed into the place it had been. Hustous growled. "Granbull, use hyper beam!" Obediantly, the huge purple dog opened its mouth emitting a high powered beam at sunflora. "Move it Sunny!" But the beam jammed itself into the small plant and it tumbled landing on the ground. It twitched then closed it's eyes, down for the count. Kendra returned Sunny to her ball, releasing another. "Go Spinner!" An Ariados clicked it's pincers together in anticipation. "Spinner, use night." "Aww, isn't this darling? A little spider and a puppy dog. Really, it's quite pathetic. The battle's only begun and I see both of you are unworthy of being trainers already!" Kendra, Hustous, Ash Misty and Brock (as well as everyone watching) spun around in circles trying to see who said that. At Hustous's end of the field, a dark cloud of smog had engulfed him. It stayed there and Brock could have sworn he heard a sickening crunch. "Now then. Shall WE battle?" Kendra was in a state of shock, the smog had grown filling the entire field. The people could still see kendra but Hustous and Granbull had vanished. "It's not smog," muttered someone nearby, they were shaking wildly. "It's darkness." She shook of the shock at the comment. "Fine. Let's see how you feel after you dare interrupt my duels! Go Spinner!" The voice chuckled, high and cold. It was like winter's icy breath was breathing down everybody's necks. Misty's eyes widened. "Hey guys, didn't Cole say the voice he heard he couldn't see it?" "Then it tore both him and his pokemon up?" In unison, they shouted out. "Kendra, run!" But it was too late. The battle had begun. 


End file.
